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Hey hey, this is Shaun with the award-winning GoTennis! Podcast powered by Signature Tennis.

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Check us out at LetsGoTennis.com and we invite you to learn more about the award by

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following the link in the show notes.

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And as you're listening to this, please look in your podcast app where to leave a review

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and do that for us.

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We would love to earn your five-star reviews.

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And now let's get into our recent conversation with Ivor Savage.

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We talk about YTEX Strings, the little known fact that the Quadro Twist string was rated

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by the USRSA as one of the best strings on the market, as well as a few other interesting

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bits of information about strings and racket equipment.

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Have a listen and let us know what you think.

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Ivor Savage.

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Thank you so much for taking time to be with us on the GoTennis! Podcast.

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And we will ask you the first and most obvious question, which is who are you and why do

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we care?

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Well Shaun, thank you very much for having me on your podcast here.

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First of all, I got to say when you ask that question, I always see some of the sports

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superstars when they get their trophies, that's that question and I not that I'm a superstar

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of sport, anything like that.

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But first of all, love saying I'm a child of God, right?

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Big believer.

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Big question and so on, so that's the number one on top I could give that credit to.

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Now if you're a little accent, I'm originally from South Africa.

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I lived there for 25 years.

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I started playing tennis with a nine year old, absolutely obsessed with tennis.

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You know, I would play seven days a week.

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If you would make an eight day, I would play on the day eight as well.

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All right, so I was not a problem child.

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My parents, I was the easiest kid.

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I always went to school afterwards, got my bicycle, got to the tennis court.

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I played at sunny side tennis club.

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That was a very busy tennis club, only six scored, but we always had tennis and I played

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matches every day.

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I can't recall that I ever did a drill in my life, like hitting cross courts or volleys,

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like even the guys in Savannah will tell you, I'm the worst guy to warm up with.

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I hit a couple of shots and I'd say, you guys ready?

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Let's go.

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Let's go.

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You know, so I played tennis all my life and on when I was 25 is when I moved, well,

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let me first say in South Africa, my little tennis history, I was top 30 in the main

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server there.

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So I did have a nice high ranking, not top 10 like Anderson or Jessica on those guys, but

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it made it to top 30.

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And I came over in 2001 to the Van Miracadame in Hilton Head, was the gentleman there, funny

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enough, there was a tall free number, one of the tennis magazines.

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And that number wasn't tall free.

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I probably wouldn't be in the States right now.

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So I just called them and said, hey, can I speak to Dennis Van Meer?

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I didn't say, do I go through his admin or so on?

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And they put me right through the big man, you know, and I talked to him and he spoke a

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little African still because he's from South Africa originally.

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I don't know if you guys know that the academy that's called Van Mir is actually not Van Mir

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or it's Fundamentable.

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That's his last name in Officance, but when he moved to the States, he's like, none of the

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Yankees will pronounce Fundamentable.

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He changed to Van Mir, a very smart move there.

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Yeah.

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So I moved to and I started, I was like an internet for a couple of years.

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Then I coached at Sea-Pines Racket Club, which was just a stone throw away for about three

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years.

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And then I made a couple with two identical boys.

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There were 12 years old at the time.

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They were commuting back and forth from Savannah, Georgia to Hilton Head for the two boys.

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And long story short, I started coaching them and I was their private coach like four years.

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They went off to play tennis and waffered college and so on.

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And I'm still in the industry.

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Like I said, coach tennis is very little right now, but I took over the YTEX business about

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eight years ago.

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And that's everything is like a little bit of a nutshell.

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But now I'm here in Savannah, Georgia running YTEX and just loving it every second of it.

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And YTEX, it is the letters are Y-T-E-X.

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When I first saw it, I thought Y-Tex.

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But when I spoke with you, you're very clearly saying Y-Tek.

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Well, maybe it must be an action thing because some people say Y-Tex and I say Y-Tek, you

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know, any way you pronounce it, I think Y-Tek is how I pronounce it.

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Some people will say Y-Tex, this is the way they pronounce the X of the end.

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But you own the company, so you get to call Y-Tek.

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What my mother calls me is my name.

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It doesn't matter what anybody else says.

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Well, the other thing is Y-Tek.

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Y-Tek, there we go.

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Done.

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Done, no choice, Bobby.

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We cannot call it Y-Tex anymore, no matter what we see.

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All right, so a little bit of history there is there an acronym or what's the Y-T-E-X?

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Does it stand for anything?

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Where's the name come from?

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Well, funny enough, the person that started YTEX, Jim was named as Andres Yeri, he started

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it 12 years ago, he launched it at the Sony Ericsson Open.

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But before that, he was a sponsor for the Junior Orange Bowl, who in Kibbutz came Florida.

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Now he started the business for him and his family, actually, he's for his son to take over

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when his son graduated college and so on.

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Now his son is actually more than the arts he parked.

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So eventually, he's like, hey, dad, you know, I'm not so much in the sales, tennis and so on.

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But I worked for him for like, as an intern, and then he's VP for like a couple of years.

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So after eight years, the dad's like, well, I have my own kind of business and I was looking

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to sell it.

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And I was like, whoa, you know, I'm your guy, you know, I believe in this string so much.

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Love it.

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And I definitely want to take it over.

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Now I ask him at some point, what is the YTEX, 10 for?

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Now I love that there's some catchy, funky story behind it.

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But there isn't.

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You know, he's all I can say is he's last name is Yeri, which starts with the Y.

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So I ask him maybe stands for Yili technologies and he says, well, that's a cool right there,

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you know, sounds like that.

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That explains it.

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So he didn't even have that thought where he came up with the word Y-Tex, but I assume it's

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probably what that can stand for.

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Yeah.

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Okay.

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Got it.

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All right.

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Now Bobby, I'm sure you've got you deal with strings and restringing more often than I do.

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So Bobby, ask all the questions about the string and take it from here.

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All right.

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I just have to ask the one.

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I know it's a big country.

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Do you know Earl Granger question?

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From South Africa.

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Oh, Granger.

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Yes.

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Yeah.

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Not personally, but I do.

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Okay.

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Because he came over.

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He worked with me for obviously went to University of Tennessee, was Paul Anacone's

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doubles partner, unbelievably driven guy.

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And we didn't end well.

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He did give me his cousin who worked with me for 12 years.

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So here's Keri Bannem, who's now married very well to a big shot at Coke and they're raising

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kids in Buckhead.

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So yes, we had the and also my favorite, of course, got to tell the dentist, Vandemir story.

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He was giving a clinic one day at Rackie Club of the South and he was working on Valleys

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and when he did the Valleys, he would say take a picture with his South African accent.

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So I literally I watched him for a day, say, you know, 10,000 times take a picture.

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So to this day, when I want to emphasize somebody's volume, I channel my inner dentist and

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they take a picture.

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Nice as man in the world, like you said, not as surprised to me that he picked up the phone

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because just he was always, you know, tennis, he was always there for everybody.

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Love that man.

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Yes, I know you and he always would say, let's go, go, go, go, go, let's go, let's go, let's

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go.

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And he would remember everybody's name.

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That's one thing that blew me away.

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You can have a clinic with him 10 years ago.

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You'll come in there and he says, hey, hi, Iver, hey, Bobby, you know, it's so on, it's amazing

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how he to retain people's names.

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I was fortunate.

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I've worked with somebody who had done the Vitt Oscar, her Tata, who moved from Hilton

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head came here and you know, that he was a mentor.

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You know, everybody, I do know everybody's name and because you guys always worked with big

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groups, he could run a drill.

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Oh my God.

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You could put 10 people on the court and they were still flying.

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So yeah, a lot of, yeah, a lot of good connections there.

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So with the strength always, my first question and how long have you been going with the

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strength now?

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12 years, 12 years, 12 years, 12 years, 12 years old.

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Yes.

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Yes.

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So what did he ever tell you?

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Like I'm always, and I love the fact that you took the Bible out model.

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Let's get into junior academies.

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Let's get to kids.

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When you look at this, because I tried it, we had a racket and I tried to introduce it.

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It's hard.

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It's hard to break into tennis.

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You know, what, what any secrets could you tell us that, you know, it's sustained

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and you know, obviously the, your string is very soft.

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So is that the thing that you try to differentiate with other folks right off the bat?

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That is the main, you know, quality from what I take that says, I support you.

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You know, a lot of brands say we have a soft string here and so on, but, you know, I went

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to like six years ago to I RIT symposium in Saddlebrook, you know, for stringers and we

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had a little demo court there and I had our flagship, the Quadrude Twist.

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I have a right here.

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Let me see this is the flagship, the Quadrude Twist right there.

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We put that in and in the bunch of players, rackets, well actually a demo rackets over there

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and as the guys start hitting, we wanted them to experience it, not just talk about it.

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The guy next to me, I was hitting next to him and he says, is this a polystring?

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Was it felt like a multi-filament string to him now?

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You know, most guys want, you know, players want to make the transition from synthetic

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gut, multi-filament, eventually, wants a turn like 10, 11, 12, he's always start breaking

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out of strings.

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They want to go to the world of poly and there's no turning back.

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I mean, people, if you play Academy CISON, the kids are going to play with polyregardless,

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they might hybrid or so on.

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Now that smooth transition, we have coaches that come back to us and says, I used to hybrid

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the strings just to make it soft for my players on, but he says, if this is how a poly feels

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to heck with hybrid, you know, and that's the one thing I tell a lot of people too.

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They really ask me, he's like, well, what should I hybrid with?

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And the first thing I tell them is, if you try the quadrotuist and you string it like, you

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know, 50 pounds or 48 pounds or so on, you can do it full bed.

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You don't have to hybrid because the biggest reason people hybrid is, you know, they want

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to softer, you know, on their arm and they also want their tension to last longer for

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tension retention.

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And also with the quadrotuist, it holds tension a long time.

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So literally, there is no reason to hybrid it.

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You know, I always tell people, you know, a couple of sets, first one you can play full bed

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and then you can hybrid and see what the difference is.

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Are you like it?

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But there's no reason to hybrid at all.

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Now in our line, we, the majority of us strings are soft co-pollies, but we also have some

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firmer because some players, like you say, different stroke, different folks.

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I got one friend of mine, he plays with Kevlar at 70 pounds, he's like a boy, he says,

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I like that debt mute feeling.

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That's what I told him, you crazy, but that's you, you know, and he doesn't like the mousse

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here feel.

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So for people like that, we do have a little firmer strings that we lay out there, but the

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majority that we focus on is soft, soft, easy on to make that transition.

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Now, when I say the soft part, we have the round co-pollies with shaped and twisted.

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So we try to cover all angles that players are normally would go for.

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But the softness is easy on the almost the main thing.

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So question for those who don't know what you're talking about.

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I'm going to pretend like I know the answer and I'm asking for a friend.

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Describe the difference between round and twisted.

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You're talking about shape of string.

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Yes, yeah.

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So if you look at the string, normally most strings that it came out with was nice, round,

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solid core, one at the beginning, so the tailies that got like five versus on, but the

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shape string, for example, our quadrote twist, it's if you take that round string and you

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make it in a square shape, all right.

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Now that is the square shape.

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We come from we have a string called square x, all right.

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Now, if you take the square x and you twist it, it becomes the quadrote twist.

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All right, with some people don't know.

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So our square x was actually the same product, but once you twist it, it becomes the quadrote

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twist.

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Obviously to generate more spin, you know, when you try to, now I always tell people, you've

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got to have to ask been already.

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You're not going to put the, if you got a string here as ready number one for spin, you're

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not going to step on the cord and start hitting a ball like graphite.

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You know, you've got to have the technique, the mechanics and so on.

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This just adds to maximizing that spin when you make contact with the ball that grabs

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that ball to give you that extra little kick.

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Okay, so a little bit in the weeds, it's a, it's a, it's a friction concept.

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So the smoother round my string is, it's a softer attack on the ball, so to speak.

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So if I take something, a string that's square, which you don't really think about a string

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having a shape, you just picture it being round, right.

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So in this case, you've taken a square and twisted it and that twisted square gives

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00:13:20,240 --> 00:13:26,800
me more grip, gives me a better attack on the ball, which adds to my already having top

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spin because obviously you can't just have spin because you have grip on the string.

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00:13:34,000 --> 00:13:38,720
And just, Sean, just to bull down that question you had right there, we had the string that

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we launched two years ago called the square x-sharp.

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Now, this one, I know if you can see closely, if you look there, you'll see it's a square

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shape, but it slams inwards, all right.

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Now we launched that string during shark week, you know, in the US.

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Now, me from South Africa, we see sharks all the time.

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You know, it's no big deal, but I was fascinated how when shark week came on TV, it was, everyone

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was talking about, hey, did you got that recorded?

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Are you watching shark week?

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I'm like, okay, no big deal.

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But so we decided, hey, we're going to launch shark, this square x-sharp in each shark

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week because literally when we launched that string, people play with it.

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00:14:18,200 --> 00:14:22,760
The coach says, these balls, when they were hitting it, the felt of the ball would get stuck

256
00:14:22,760 --> 00:14:27,560
in the string, that's how much it gripped the ball before it releases.

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So the square x-sharp without quadro, that's our two most popular ones.

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So that really shows you as a difference between having a round normal string and having something

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which would grip on it.

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Got it.

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So bite is the concept with shark.

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Big bite.

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00:14:42,560 --> 00:14:47,760
So this is why our hit show, Dear Week, never really went anywhere in Georgia because it's

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just not, you know, you see, doesn't, doesn't help.

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00:14:50,320 --> 00:14:54,800
Okay, Bobby, questions again, stick with the technical, you got anything business wise?

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I know.

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00:14:55,800 --> 00:14:57,880
Yeah, business wise, Bobby's probably got his brain running.

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00:14:57,880 --> 00:15:01,120
Yeah, this is obviously, you got to feel it.

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So how do you get it into, and you know, and I'm one of them, you know, pros aren't necessarily

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the most reliable fish in the sea.

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So you know, what do you do to get it into people's hands so people can see it and actually feel

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it?

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00:15:15,920 --> 00:15:21,600
Yeah, Bobby, I'm 100% with you that people's got to feel it because I deal so many times

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with stringers.

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00:15:23,320 --> 00:15:27,720
For example, a stringer can be a 3-0 level player, but he spends a lot of time stringing

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your rackets and a lot of those stringers, they all focus on what does the chart say?

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What does the number say?

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They'll say, for example, well, this one stiff is rating.

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It's a little higher than that one.

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Why doesn't play softer?

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00:15:40,200 --> 00:15:45,520
So to get into the detail, I'll tell those people right away, I'm a player first, like I said,

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I played for 41 years, tennis, and it's some of the highest levels too.

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I mean, I played the USA, Teno national championship we won.

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00:15:53,120 --> 00:15:54,520
Now, I'm not saying that to brag.

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I'm just saying that you say that I know about the top level of tennis and also the beginning

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level of tennis.

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So that's important to understand.

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Just to get back to your question, how do you get it in people's rackets?

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00:16:07,520 --> 00:16:12,200
Now, obviously, when we say, hey, we've got this string, it's phenomenal.

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00:16:12,200 --> 00:16:14,840
We're not as big as Wilson's, linko, those guys.

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They just flood the market with samples.

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00:16:16,720 --> 00:16:19,120
We were left to do that.

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00:16:19,120 --> 00:16:22,880
But we do what we've done is, for example, we have sample programs.

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For example, if you go on our website, the whitepextwings.com, we made it easy.

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We created two packages.

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The one is called the Y-Box and the other one is a tryback.

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Now, in the white box, you get six strings of your choice.

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00:16:37,200 --> 00:16:42,720
Now it can be once you apply to the white box, this questionnaire we put there like, tell

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00:16:42,720 --> 00:16:46,440
us what strings you play with, tell us what strings from white take you would like to

300
00:16:46,440 --> 00:16:50,200
try, or tell us your ideal string.

301
00:16:50,200 --> 00:16:55,200
In most of those cases, I personally reply to all of them when people apply for the white

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00:16:55,200 --> 00:16:59,360
box and I go and I look at the string that I play with, that they play with, it's a linko

303
00:16:59,360 --> 00:17:04,720
confidential, they want something a little softer, but same type, I recommend, hey, I'll

304
00:17:04,720 --> 00:17:07,800
extra, extra be perfect for you at this tension.

305
00:17:07,800 --> 00:17:12,720
So we try to make it personalized, not just some people saying, oh, try the string, I look

306
00:17:12,720 --> 00:17:16,600
at what people say they play with, because you think about it.

307
00:17:16,600 --> 00:17:20,720
You take your whole life looking for a racket to play with and eventually a string.

308
00:17:20,720 --> 00:17:22,080
How many strings have you gone through?

309
00:17:22,080 --> 00:17:23,080
A bunch.

310
00:17:23,080 --> 00:17:25,200
And you finally settle on this one.

311
00:17:25,200 --> 00:17:28,880
Now for you to switch to a different brand, you got to make sure that string that you

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00:17:28,880 --> 00:17:31,960
play test kind of matches what you want.

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00:17:31,960 --> 00:17:34,400
You don't want something that's totally different.

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00:17:34,400 --> 00:17:38,120
So that's why I pay a lot of attention on what is the string that they currently play

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00:17:38,120 --> 00:17:40,280
with, what they would like to play with.

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00:17:40,280 --> 00:17:44,600
And we send that in the white box with a couple of other goodies with it and so on.

317
00:17:44,600 --> 00:17:49,800
Now we also have a laser piece of one, which is the tripe pack where they get three, three

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00:17:49,800 --> 00:17:52,720
strings of they choosing and a dry fatigian and so on.

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00:17:52,720 --> 00:17:57,520
So that's the way that we make it very, let's say inexpensive, affordable for them to

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00:17:57,520 --> 00:17:58,520
find out.

321
00:17:58,520 --> 00:18:02,320
The youngest rumor about white tag, it's been on the market a long time.

322
00:18:02,320 --> 00:18:03,800
Why is it so popular?

323
00:18:03,800 --> 00:18:06,640
We don't, and I tell people never get reals right off the bat.

324
00:18:06,640 --> 00:18:10,680
Get some of the sets first, play test and take one, say two sets of so on.

325
00:18:10,680 --> 00:18:16,400
And then if you love it, that's when you jump for the reals, 660 feet or more if you are

326
00:18:16,400 --> 00:18:19,160
string or string breaker.

327
00:18:19,160 --> 00:18:24,800
So who would you say is there a level that you get point to that is your, your, your

328
00:18:24,800 --> 00:18:28,640
best clientele, most loyal?

329
00:18:28,640 --> 00:18:33,480
Well, the most loyal, obviously people that looking for a string that's easy on the

330
00:18:33,480 --> 00:18:37,800
arm, you know, that's pretty much the testimonies that we get all the time is, you know, I had

331
00:18:37,800 --> 00:18:41,560
this string, I switched to the quadro, my own pain is gone.

332
00:18:41,560 --> 00:18:43,440
So it's, that's pretty much what I'm looking for.

333
00:18:43,440 --> 00:18:48,880
If I get those emails from people that says, my elbow pain is gone, I get a little excitement

334
00:18:48,880 --> 00:18:49,880
to kick on it.

335
00:18:49,880 --> 00:18:53,200
You know, I mean, for me, it's not about, oh, how many orders we have been this, for me,

336
00:18:53,200 --> 00:18:58,720
it's like if somebody says they tennis elbow is gone or this string helped for that, that's,

337
00:18:58,720 --> 00:18:59,720
that's my focus point.

338
00:18:59,720 --> 00:19:04,120
And that's, that's why I decided, you know, when the, when I bought the company from Andres,

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00:19:04,120 --> 00:19:07,720
you know, eight years ago, you know, it's one of the things you got to believe in your

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00:19:07,720 --> 00:19:12,240
product, you know, overwhelmingly, like I'll be, I'll be here telling people shouting,

341
00:19:12,240 --> 00:19:14,280
hey, get this quadro, get the quadro.

342
00:19:14,280 --> 00:19:20,320
And once they play with it, not to bore you with the details, we have about 97% five out

343
00:19:20,320 --> 00:19:23,640
of five stars on our website out of like seven hundred reviews.

344
00:19:23,640 --> 00:19:28,680
But if you, and you look at it, I always encourage people go on the website, look at the reviews,

345
00:19:28,680 --> 00:19:31,240
spate some time to see what other people say.

346
00:19:31,240 --> 00:19:35,040
And all of them, you can say it's like, hey, I've switched from this string, my elbow pain

347
00:19:35,040 --> 00:19:36,040
is gone.

348
00:19:36,040 --> 00:19:37,480
This is a lot more softer.

349
00:19:37,480 --> 00:19:39,560
And that's what I'm focusing on going there.

350
00:19:39,560 --> 00:19:43,320
It's not so much what different streets we have than other brands.

351
00:19:43,320 --> 00:19:50,120
My focus is how do we help people with tennis elbow or the most importantly, how do we

352
00:19:50,120 --> 00:19:55,280
get players, specifically young juniors that wants to make a transition from synthetic

353
00:19:55,280 --> 00:19:58,400
guts, multi-filament, they pop strings all the time.

354
00:19:58,400 --> 00:19:59,400
Parents go crazy.

355
00:19:59,400 --> 00:20:01,680
We have to restring your racket again.

356
00:20:01,680 --> 00:20:05,760
You know, that can stop to to polyester string where he doesn't hurt that arm and he doesn't

357
00:20:05,760 --> 00:20:09,600
hurt the parents budget when they play a little bit longer with the strings.

358
00:20:09,600 --> 00:20:13,520
Excuse it.

359
00:20:13,520 --> 00:20:17,800
I want to introduce it in the winter in Atlanta, especially this winter.

360
00:20:17,800 --> 00:20:20,640
It's not such cold temperatures.

361
00:20:20,640 --> 00:20:21,640
Here's your winters.

362
00:20:21,640 --> 00:20:27,040
I mean, I always tell, don't have a tendency to restring rackets this time of year unless

363
00:20:27,040 --> 00:20:31,200
somebody brings because the cold is going to affect it so much.

364
00:20:31,200 --> 00:20:34,840
But this might be a good way to offset the cold a little bit as well.

365
00:20:34,840 --> 00:20:35,840
Yeah.

366
00:20:35,840 --> 00:20:36,840
Yeah.

367
00:20:36,840 --> 00:20:38,840
That's right.

368
00:20:38,840 --> 00:20:42,880
So, I love it, Bobby, with somebody who says, not to bore you with the details, but hang

369
00:20:42,880 --> 00:20:43,880
on them.

370
00:20:43,880 --> 00:20:44,880
Let me get into the percentages.

371
00:20:44,880 --> 00:20:45,880
I'm like, I am.

372
00:20:45,880 --> 00:20:47,560
I feel like you didn't make it boring.

373
00:20:47,560 --> 00:20:48,560
We appreciate that.

374
00:20:48,560 --> 00:20:49,560
We've had a couple of--

375
00:20:49,560 --> 00:20:50,560
Well, hey, Sean.

376
00:20:50,560 --> 00:20:51,560
Well, sorry.

377
00:20:51,560 --> 00:20:54,480
Just to chime in there a little bit, we say not to bore the details.

378
00:20:54,480 --> 00:20:56,000
Let me bore you with a little detail.

379
00:20:56,000 --> 00:20:57,000
Of course.

380
00:20:57,000 --> 00:20:59,840
Now, a lot of people will say, you know, I'm pretty white in Sean.

381
00:20:59,840 --> 00:21:02,400
I'm just going to throw that little nugget in there.

382
00:21:02,400 --> 00:21:07,600
When the US RSA, you know, they play tasted 200 strings blind test that they got and they

383
00:21:07,600 --> 00:21:08,960
played tasted.

384
00:21:08,960 --> 00:21:13,960
This quadroot twist, the one that I mentioned to you, this one right here, that came in

385
00:21:13,960 --> 00:21:18,080
number one for spin and number two overall.

386
00:21:18,080 --> 00:21:22,720
You know, with power, feel, durability, and so on, the only string that performed higher

387
00:21:22,720 --> 00:21:24,480
was Wolf's natural gut.

388
00:21:24,480 --> 00:21:28,320
So I let you tell people, you're-- this is the holy grid of string.

389
00:21:28,320 --> 00:21:31,640
You know, if you look here for polyester and so on, it's really that good.

390
00:21:31,640 --> 00:21:34,960
Out of 200 strings, number one for spin, number two overall.

391
00:21:34,960 --> 00:21:38,600
Now, some of the other strings falls in that same category.

392
00:21:38,600 --> 00:21:42,200
So basically, you know the string quality is just phenomenal.

393
00:21:42,200 --> 00:21:43,200
Yeah.

394
00:21:43,200 --> 00:21:47,800
Not as popular as the main brands because we don't sponsor Joe Kuwich, Nadal, Sinner of

395
00:21:47,800 --> 00:21:48,800
those guys.

396
00:21:48,800 --> 00:21:52,800
We would love to, but give me a check first of a million bucks and I'll do it.

397
00:21:52,800 --> 00:21:55,000
You know what I'm saying?

398
00:21:55,000 --> 00:21:56,000
Yeah.

399
00:21:56,000 --> 00:21:57,000
Well, all right.

400
00:21:57,000 --> 00:21:58,000
Well done.

401
00:21:58,000 --> 00:21:59,000
Good.

402
00:21:59,000 --> 00:22:01,760
So I didn't have to prompt you with, so why don't you tell me if you want any awards recently

403
00:22:01,760 --> 00:22:03,280
and then you need to bring it up.

404
00:22:03,280 --> 00:22:04,280
You knew--

405
00:22:04,280 --> 00:22:05,280
Yeah.

406
00:22:05,280 --> 00:22:06,280
You knew to mention that.

407
00:22:06,280 --> 00:22:10,360
And we put that in the press release that went out recently because I tech and the American

408
00:22:10,360 --> 00:22:15,360
Raga Sports Association have gotten together to make sure that we can help with tennis elbow

409
00:22:15,360 --> 00:22:22,000
that we can get this into more coaches, hands, and more pro shops.

410
00:22:22,000 --> 00:22:26,000
What else do you have going on in your world, Iver?

411
00:22:26,000 --> 00:22:28,320
Is there anything interesting happening with Y-Tech?

412
00:22:28,320 --> 00:22:30,400
Is there anything from a stringing perspective?

413
00:22:30,400 --> 00:22:34,440
Because a lot of people just picture it as kind of a necessary thing, but not all that

414
00:22:34,440 --> 00:22:35,440
interesting.

415
00:22:35,440 --> 00:22:39,440
What else is going on in the stringing world that anybody might find interesting?

416
00:22:39,440 --> 00:22:46,360
Well, the big thing is the partnership we just have now with the ARA, you know, we felt

417
00:22:46,360 --> 00:22:47,360
it very necessary.

418
00:22:47,360 --> 00:22:52,880
Like I mentioned before, you know, I'm a player first and I lost a string rackets for

419
00:22:52,880 --> 00:22:54,000
locals.

420
00:22:54,000 --> 00:22:58,560
And I always feel like, you know, if you string for people in your area, in your coach or

421
00:22:58,560 --> 00:23:03,640
your player and your people you string for, you should be able to make profit, you know,

422
00:23:03,640 --> 00:23:06,840
with a string that you buy, not just your labor.

423
00:23:06,840 --> 00:23:10,320
And I bet there's a lot of players out there probably listening and watching this right

424
00:23:10,320 --> 00:23:15,720
now saying, yeah, well, I string rackets, I get it online, you know, maybe a little discount

425
00:23:15,720 --> 00:23:19,680
while I pay retail, but I'm going to, you know, mark it up and so on and make my money

426
00:23:19,680 --> 00:23:21,160
out of the labor and so on.

427
00:23:21,160 --> 00:23:26,480
And I'm like, if you string rackets, you should be able to get this kind of pricing.

428
00:23:26,480 --> 00:23:31,160
So this is the partnership that we offered, you know, for the ARA.

429
00:23:31,160 --> 00:23:36,360
And we're grateful, you know, you guys parking with us in this, that any member of the

430
00:23:36,360 --> 00:23:41,480
ARA and some of that joins of your organization, we would offer them a wholesale account with

431
00:23:41,480 --> 00:23:42,480
white tech.

432
00:23:42,480 --> 00:23:47,440
Now, you know, if you normally partner with other brands and you say, hey, I want a wholesale

433
00:23:47,440 --> 00:23:53,960
account, first of all, they require say, hey, send us your business tax ID and we have this

434
00:23:53,960 --> 00:23:56,120
minimum order requirement.

435
00:23:56,120 --> 00:24:01,720
And that is a lot to us from a local stringer that just wants to make some profit out of

436
00:24:01,720 --> 00:24:02,720
strings.

437
00:24:02,720 --> 00:24:09,040
So we bypass that and specifically because we're not as big name, we want to give that advantage

438
00:24:09,040 --> 00:24:14,600
to the stringers out there and the coaches and say, hey, we offer you this wholesale account

439
00:24:14,600 --> 00:24:16,320
and it is absolutely free.

440
00:24:16,320 --> 00:24:23,160
Like I said, only thing that they have to do is go on the computer and say, hey, if I'm

441
00:24:23,160 --> 00:24:25,760
not sure about this brand, let me order a sample.

442
00:24:25,760 --> 00:24:28,920
When we order the Y box or something, just you taste it out.

443
00:24:28,920 --> 00:24:33,920
If it's as awesome as you think it is or that you play out of experience, say, oh, this is

444
00:24:33,920 --> 00:24:34,920
awesome.

445
00:24:34,920 --> 00:24:39,560
You have a wholesale account there waiting for you now to throw this little add to it.

446
00:24:39,560 --> 00:24:44,680
Now obviously a wholesale pricing, you mean you saving like 30% more, we just launched

447
00:24:44,680 --> 00:24:50,560
a bundle program, meaning if you order more than two, reals or three, you get more discount.

448
00:24:50,560 --> 00:24:56,120
So if you get the bundles, you order a couple of reals, you get up to 50% discount on the

449
00:24:56,120 --> 00:24:57,120
strings.

450
00:24:57,120 --> 00:25:02,800
So that is a huge incentive for stringers that would normally buy strings at retail pricing.

451
00:25:02,800 --> 00:25:06,880
So that's pretty much what's happening with Y-Tech right now is we launched the bundle

452
00:25:06,880 --> 00:25:07,880
program.

453
00:25:07,880 --> 00:25:08,880
I love it.

454
00:25:08,880 --> 00:25:14,960
Bobby, we're going to have to send this episode straight to FAD and see what you think.

455
00:25:14,960 --> 00:25:19,480
Well, I'm getting the feeling you're not working with your service.

456
00:25:19,480 --> 00:25:21,600
That's just a feeling I'm getting.

457
00:25:21,600 --> 00:25:23,320
Well, Bobby, you know what?

458
00:25:23,320 --> 00:25:25,680
I would love to work with them.

459
00:25:25,680 --> 00:25:30,160
I think I can't add them queen like a bunch of times and so on the past, but you know what?

460
00:25:30,160 --> 00:25:36,160
With any kind of new brands, you know, the response I normally get from some of the companies

461
00:25:36,160 --> 00:25:41,960
is they will look at bringing in a brand when there's a lot of demand for people asking

462
00:25:41,960 --> 00:25:44,320
for that specific string and so on.

463
00:25:44,320 --> 00:25:49,120
And so it's very hard getting into some of the big online, or the big companies like we

464
00:25:49,120 --> 00:25:50,120
are with tennis wearers.

465
00:25:50,120 --> 00:25:54,840
You know, if you look at them, you'll see Y-Tech's there, but our flagship, the quadrotrus

466
00:25:54,840 --> 00:26:00,760
features there now for us, we love to feature all of our line, but it's hard for them because

467
00:26:00,760 --> 00:26:05,760
they're always waiting for customers to come in first and request a certain string.

468
00:26:05,760 --> 00:26:06,760
You know what I'm saying?

469
00:26:06,760 --> 00:26:07,760
So we are open for that.

470
00:26:07,760 --> 00:26:11,960
You know, if you have some connection with your service, we would love to chat with them.

471
00:26:11,960 --> 00:26:13,960
No, I'm not.

472
00:26:13,960 --> 00:26:15,800
No, I'll just leave it at that.

473
00:26:15,800 --> 00:26:16,800
Okay.

474
00:26:16,800 --> 00:26:17,800
I got it.

475
00:26:17,800 --> 00:26:18,800
We're going to leave that one in no.

476
00:26:18,800 --> 00:26:21,000
I'm going to leave that one right there.

477
00:26:21,000 --> 00:26:22,000
That's the deep one.

478
00:26:22,000 --> 00:26:26,000
Bobby, Bobby, you got anything else for Iver before I hit him with King of Tennis?

479
00:26:26,000 --> 00:26:27,640
No, I want to hear.

480
00:26:27,640 --> 00:26:28,640
All right.

481
00:26:28,640 --> 00:26:32,240
So Iver, our last question, which we always love, and it's a lot of fun.

482
00:26:32,240 --> 00:26:37,560
We asked if you were King of Tennis, whether it's the whole world, whether it's professional,

483
00:26:37,560 --> 00:26:44,320
social, amateur, league, ATP, any scale at all.

484
00:26:44,320 --> 00:26:49,760
If you were King of Tennis, is there anything you would just do or change?

485
00:26:49,760 --> 00:26:52,320
So you give me the safety right now.

486
00:26:52,320 --> 00:26:54,960
I'm King for a whole year, all right?

487
00:26:54,960 --> 00:26:55,960
Okay.

488
00:26:55,960 --> 00:27:02,520
One thing that's very close to me is like as much I care for the players and so on with

489
00:27:02,520 --> 00:27:07,560
their strings and so on, I care a lot about the up and coming juniors that wanted to

490
00:27:07,560 --> 00:27:08,840
be professional.

491
00:27:08,840 --> 00:27:12,600
Now I tried it when I was in my 21s and so on.

492
00:27:12,600 --> 00:27:18,320
But if you look currently, you can make a living if you're in the top 100, right?

493
00:27:18,320 --> 00:27:21,920
From tennis, pretty much, you know, I think the top 100 is on.

494
00:27:21,920 --> 00:27:26,120
Once you're outside the top 100, you know, we had a Savannah Challenger.

495
00:27:26,120 --> 00:27:28,320
You know, Savannah was a $50,000 Challenger.

496
00:27:28,320 --> 00:27:29,560
Sounds big.

497
00:27:29,560 --> 00:27:32,400
The price pool was $8,000 for the winner.

498
00:27:32,400 --> 00:27:37,480
And those guys, you talk about Nick Kerrio as a wins it a couple of years ago, Aini Shikori.

499
00:27:37,480 --> 00:27:38,880
He won a couple of years ago.

500
00:27:38,880 --> 00:27:41,720
Those guys are guys that already made for top 50.

501
00:27:41,720 --> 00:27:48,520
You know, so everybody that is outside the top 100 pretty much gives up very quickly when

502
00:27:48,520 --> 00:27:52,600
they see it's so hard to break in the top 100 and they sleep.

503
00:27:52,600 --> 00:27:56,280
Some of them sleep in a car for a day or two just to play that tournament to get points

504
00:27:56,280 --> 00:27:57,280
as long.

505
00:27:57,280 --> 00:28:03,400
So I would say to end your question there is the professionals like Jokovic, Senator

506
00:28:03,400 --> 00:28:06,760
those guys that gave spade millions upon millions.

507
00:28:06,760 --> 00:28:11,680
I would say, if I was in charge, I would cap, say, this is the max.

508
00:28:11,680 --> 00:28:15,960
And when somebody would get for tournaments, now they will get out of bed for 500,000.

509
00:28:15,960 --> 00:28:17,680
They'll get out of bed for a million.

510
00:28:17,680 --> 00:28:23,640
It's just they get money poured onto them like you would not believe while the rest are struggling

511
00:28:23,640 --> 00:28:24,640
out there.

512
00:28:24,640 --> 00:28:32,720
So I would say to have some sort of a program where if you are the top 1000 in your sport that

513
00:28:32,720 --> 00:28:34,200
you can make a living out of it.

514
00:28:34,200 --> 00:28:37,480
So that meaning the tournaments that they'll played out of it, that the money is trickled

515
00:28:37,480 --> 00:28:42,800
down in such a way where people can make a living because you and I know how tough it is just

516
00:28:42,800 --> 00:28:44,920
to get one ATP point.

517
00:28:44,920 --> 00:28:48,760
If you get that one point, you feel like, hey, I'm officially in professional, but that doesn't

518
00:28:48,760 --> 00:28:49,760
mean nothing.

519
00:28:49,760 --> 00:28:50,960
I've come to live off that.

520
00:28:50,960 --> 00:28:51,960
You don't live off points.

521
00:28:51,960 --> 00:28:52,960
You live off money.

522
00:28:52,960 --> 00:28:54,880
You have to say, so that might get you into tournaments.

523
00:28:54,880 --> 00:29:00,400
I would say if you get an ATP point, you know, or you're the top 1000 in the world in your

524
00:29:00,400 --> 00:29:06,040
sport that there's got to be funding for tournaments for those players with, because right

525
00:29:06,040 --> 00:29:11,400
now, if I've had so many students that I coach over the years and the parents would come

526
00:29:11,400 --> 00:29:15,080
and say, hey, does my son do you think he can be a professional?

527
00:29:15,080 --> 00:29:17,160
You know, I would never say no.

528
00:29:17,160 --> 00:29:23,240
I would say give it all you got and so on, but we all realistically know 99.99, 99% of them

529
00:29:23,240 --> 00:29:26,480
can maximize the get high scholarships and so on.

530
00:29:26,480 --> 00:29:29,320
The professional, you can count on one or two hands.

531
00:29:29,320 --> 00:29:30,640
Who of them going to make it?

532
00:29:30,640 --> 00:29:34,760
Now, if the top 1000, now they can live off that.

533
00:29:34,760 --> 00:29:38,760
I think the normal coaches will tell players, hey, you know, go for it.

534
00:29:38,760 --> 00:29:39,760
You've got it.

535
00:29:39,760 --> 00:29:42,840
You're so on this room for you because it doesn't make sense for me.

536
00:29:42,840 --> 00:29:47,600
There's only room for 100 people in this whole world to make a living out of the sport.

537
00:29:47,600 --> 00:29:49,600
So that's the one thing I would change.

538
00:29:49,600 --> 00:29:51,800
Bobby, what do you think?

539
00:29:51,800 --> 00:29:55,240
Well, I mean, we're trying, right?

540
00:29:55,240 --> 00:29:57,800
There's various, I love the German club.

541
00:29:57,800 --> 00:30:00,120
These, what intense is trying to do.

542
00:30:00,120 --> 00:30:01,440
I think it has to.

543
00:30:01,440 --> 00:30:04,360
I would always, you know, I'm a capitalist at heart.

544
00:30:04,360 --> 00:30:10,160
So you follow the market, but I do obviously when you just look at professional sports football,

545
00:30:10,160 --> 00:30:11,360
like, you know, the magic.

546
00:30:11,360 --> 00:30:18,680
It's 1500 people make a living, professional baseball, most to 800 people make a living, basketball,

547
00:30:18,680 --> 00:30:19,680
over 600.

548
00:30:19,680 --> 00:30:24,760
Like you said, I mean, we're talking about less than a hundred and combining men and women

549
00:30:24,760 --> 00:30:27,840
do not make a living, you know, or struggling.

550
00:30:27,840 --> 00:30:28,840
And that's, yeah.

551
00:30:28,840 --> 00:30:31,400
And I think I think it scares a lot of people out of it.

552
00:30:31,400 --> 00:30:36,560
You know, if you were inclined to say, I would love your professional athlete at a young age,

553
00:30:36,560 --> 00:30:39,360
you know, that's going to keep you out of tennis.

554
00:30:39,360 --> 00:30:41,800
You don't see the pathway that you see with other.

555
00:30:41,800 --> 00:30:46,480
And I love the idea of what they're trying to do with more teams, more team oriented events

556
00:30:46,480 --> 00:30:47,480
as well.

557
00:30:47,480 --> 00:30:49,240
This way you get more people involved from that.

558
00:30:49,240 --> 00:30:50,240
I love that.

559
00:30:50,240 --> 00:30:51,240
So yeah.

560
00:30:51,240 --> 00:30:54,560
And I think that would have helped the game because it would, it would increase familiar

561
00:30:54,560 --> 00:30:55,560
already.

562
00:30:55,560 --> 00:30:59,920
You know, you're more likely to know somebody as silly as it sounds that played at a professional

563
00:30:59,920 --> 00:31:00,920
level.

564
00:31:00,920 --> 00:31:04,440
And I'm always going to have an attachment when you say, well, I played against that person

565
00:31:04,440 --> 00:31:06,160
and look, they're on tour or something.

566
00:31:06,160 --> 00:31:10,600
So yeah, I mean, that's a struggle that just needs to address.

567
00:31:10,600 --> 00:31:15,040
And I think a good way to do it would be to short the darn season for the big guys.

568
00:31:15,040 --> 00:31:20,360
So the, you know, the lesser guys could go train and play a club league or doing intense

569
00:31:20,360 --> 00:31:25,520
for two months out of the year before they got to go chase the ATP point.

570
00:31:25,520 --> 00:31:26,520
So yeah.

571
00:31:26,520 --> 00:31:27,520
Yeah.

572
00:31:27,520 --> 00:31:28,520
Let's do it.

573
00:31:28,520 --> 00:31:29,520
Let's do it.

574
00:31:29,520 --> 00:31:34,960
Well, like you say, you know, as king, as king, I would enforce the law by reality.

575
00:31:34,960 --> 00:31:38,520
Like you say, you know, the approach will take a different day by day.

576
00:31:38,520 --> 00:31:42,240
Well, and the question there is, okay, you're king.

577
00:31:42,240 --> 00:31:43,240
It's not about enforcement.

578
00:31:43,240 --> 00:31:44,560
You have to invent the law.

579
00:31:44,560 --> 00:31:46,280
So how exactly is it?

580
00:31:46,280 --> 00:31:47,280
Exactly.

581
00:31:47,280 --> 00:31:48,280
Is how I'm going to do it?

582
00:31:48,280 --> 00:31:49,480
Because anybody can say, I wish.

583
00:31:49,480 --> 00:31:50,480
Yes.

584
00:31:50,480 --> 00:31:52,840
But then there actually has to be a way for it to be done.

585
00:31:52,840 --> 00:31:56,720
I keyed in on the idea of you saying we don't, we don't survive on points.

586
00:31:56,720 --> 00:31:58,120
We survive on money.

587
00:31:58,120 --> 00:32:03,800
And what if there was an ability to translate points to money in some way to where if you

588
00:32:03,800 --> 00:32:07,840
get that ATP point, ATP point, it is worth X a year.

589
00:32:07,840 --> 00:32:11,000
And if you keep it, it gets to its worth, X a year.

590
00:32:11,000 --> 00:32:16,520
And the ATP can figure out how to actually just define it by that and say, okay, well,

591
00:32:16,520 --> 00:32:22,200
I need 13 ATP points to pay my bills this year or this month or whatever that looks like

592
00:32:22,200 --> 00:32:26,680
to actually have a plan and say hopefully someday somebody listens to this podcast.

593
00:32:26,680 --> 00:32:28,600
And says, hey, these guys got it figured out.

594
00:32:28,600 --> 00:32:29,600
Let's do that.

595
00:32:29,600 --> 00:32:31,080
John, I didn't think of that.

596
00:32:31,080 --> 00:32:32,400
That's an excellent point.

597
00:32:32,400 --> 00:32:33,400
Yeah.

598
00:32:33,400 --> 00:32:34,400
Yeah.

599
00:32:34,400 --> 00:32:35,400
You got it right there.

600
00:32:35,400 --> 00:32:36,400
That's why I'm doing it.

601
00:32:36,400 --> 00:32:37,400
I agree.

602
00:32:37,400 --> 00:32:41,240
I think that's the other you're taking my friend engineering is a good and it's also set

603
00:32:41,240 --> 00:32:45,160
now you know, something you can sell to a sponsor because you know, you're not just selling

604
00:32:45,160 --> 00:32:46,160
the event.

605
00:32:46,160 --> 00:32:47,640
You're selling ATP points.

606
00:32:47,640 --> 00:32:52,040
And so you have more people competing for ATP points, more knowledge about who the sponsor

607
00:32:52,040 --> 00:32:53,040
is.

608
00:32:53,040 --> 00:32:56,160
So yeah, I mean, I think that's a very interesting way to approach it.

609
00:32:56,160 --> 00:32:57,480
Just to see what it is.

610
00:32:57,480 --> 00:32:58,480
What is what is 818?

611
00:32:58,480 --> 00:32:59,480
Yeah.

612
00:32:59,480 --> 00:33:02,600
What is it really worth now and what could it be worth?

613
00:33:02,600 --> 00:33:04,520
So yeah, that's a great jump off spot.

614
00:33:04,520 --> 00:33:05,520
All right.

615
00:33:05,520 --> 00:33:06,520
We'll have to do a follow up.

616
00:33:06,520 --> 00:33:07,520
See if we can figure that one out.

617
00:33:07,520 --> 00:33:10,000
Iver, with why tech strings.

618
00:33:10,000 --> 00:33:11,240
I appreciate your time.

619
00:33:11,240 --> 00:33:12,920
I appreciate you being here.

620
00:33:12,920 --> 00:33:15,160
And Bobby is always appreciate your help.

621
00:33:15,160 --> 00:33:16,160
And gentlemen, thank you so much.

622
00:33:16,160 --> 00:33:17,160
We'll talk again soon.

623
00:33:17,160 --> 00:33:18,160
Appreciate you, Sean.

624
00:33:18,160 --> 00:33:19,160
Bobby, thank you.

625
00:33:19,160 --> 00:33:21,160
Have a good one.

626
00:33:21,160 --> 00:33:23,600
Well, there you have it.

627
00:33:23,600 --> 00:33:28,800
We want to thank reGeovinate.com for use of the studio and signature tennis for their support.

628
00:33:28,800 --> 00:33:30,640
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629
00:33:30,640 --> 00:33:34,840
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630
00:33:34,840 --> 00:33:39,600
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635
00:33:53,000 --> 00:33:54,000
And with that, we're out.

636
00:33:54,000 --> 00:33:55,000
See you next time.

637
00:33:55,000 --> 00:33:57,000
[MUSIC PLAYING]

638
00:33:57,000 --> 00:33:59,000
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639
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640
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